Rittenberg told me today that Snyder HAS interviewed for the position. He doesn't know much more yet, but should know more later today. One of their guys is at the coaching conference, and is having lunch with Snyder today.

At first glance, landing Snyder would be something of a coup. It's not often you can get a former HC and Ohio State DC to take a job coaching the linebackers. In the TomVH thread linked above there's some discussion about Snyder pro- and con-; it appears the Wikipedia article is full of lies about Snyder's resume. Wikipedia little box says Snyder was Minnesota's defensive coordinator from 1996 to 2000; his official Marshall bio and the article itself say he coached defensive ends. The little box (of lies!) also says he was Ohio State's DC for four years; he was only DC in 2004.

Snyder's year as OSU DC had some wild swings. Early the Buckeyes gave up 33, 24, and 33 in three consecutive losses against Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa; late no one put up more than 24 and Ohio State strangled Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl. The final numbers were good: 30th in total defense, 19th in scoring, 19th in pass efficiency D. The following year OU shot up to 5th in both total and scoring defense, which you can either interpret as a sign Snyder wasn't that good or that he had a young team that year. Survey says these were the Ohio State seniors on defense in '04:

Uniform #

First Name

Last Name

Position

Class

Games Played

37

Dustin

Fox

DB

SR

9

34

Rob

Harley

DB

SR

8

13

Harlen

Jacobs

DB

SR

8

75

Simon

Fraser

DL

SR

12

94

Marcus

Green

DL

SR

11

83

Redgie

Arden

DL

SR

1

51

Anthony

Schlegel

LB

SR

12

1

Thomas

Matthews

LB

SR

9

I think that's four starters (Fox, Fraser, Green, and Schlegel), two of whom were drafted in the third round. So the massive improvement from one year to the next doesn't necessarily say much about Snyder.

At Marshall, Snyder did zero, getting to .500 once in five years—this year's 7-6 season.

Snyder's still young for a former head coach at 45 and has seriously deep ties to Tressel with his stints at Ohio State and Youngstown State. He played safety at Marshall and has coached every position group on defense, FWIW.

Technically, for him to be a double agent he'd be telling the Buckeyes he's on their side, while really working for us. For example, he would be relaying defensive game plans to the Sovi...err, buckeyes which are actually provided by us with the goal of deceiving the buckeyes.

I think the damage done at Marshall to his reputation requires this sort of Michigan position coaching rehabilitation. Let's not forget, it's not like being a position coach just anywhere...this is Michigan.

If the haters don't hate you then you're doing something wrong. - David Cone

No, srsly, I've been doing some work on the Louisiana-Monroe coaches page (don't ask), so I figured I might as well fix up Snyder's page now that you've mentioned it ... it should be more accurate now.

Although Jim Tressel managed to keep his name out of police reports of the incident, informed source inside the Columbus PD, say that ol' sweatervest himself was riding shotgun in the early morning hours of August 9, 2006, when Maurice Clarett was arrested in Columbus after an illegal U-turn and police chase in Clarett's SUV. Teflon Tress could not be reached for comment.

In 1991, Snyder joined Tressel's Youngstown State staff as the outside linebackers coach. Snyder was given the added responsibility of special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach in 1994 and was promoted to defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996. During his tenure at Youngstown State, the Penguins won three NCAA Division 1-AA national championships and played in four consecutive national championship games, facing Marshall in three of those contests (1991, 1992, and 1993).